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Monday, August 05, 2013

I'm diseased!

At some stage yesterday evening I noticed a small patch of either a rash or possibly insect bites. I wasn't sure but it wasn't itching so I just left it. No bother this morning either so I carried on with my day. After a couple of hours out and about, however, I noticed a blister on my thumb. I was on my way to an appointment with the pensions people (and that was lots of fun - I now have to go off and find some written proof of the time I was in school and college, great, 'cos Ireland is so good at documenting everything!) so couldn't do anything about it. By the time I got out of there, I had a couple more blisters where the rash had been. I finished the rest of what I needed to do in town and headed home, reaching my road, where the skin doctor's surgery is conveniently also located just after four. I had to wait nearly an hour and a half but with these hands, wouldn't you have waited, too?

The left - strangely elongated

The right

It is weirdly difficult to take photos of your own hands and rashes and blisters, I have to say. The plasters covers the places where the worst blisters were. They got lanced by the doctor. I also got a prescription for some cream to use tomorrow. Over the course of the evening, a few more blisters have developed. I'll see how big they've gotten by the morning before deciding to lance them or not. Best of all, he asked me straight away if I'd been working in the garden. I told him I had but only on Saturday morning and that the rash didn't show up until Sunday evening. That didn't matter, though, he said it's definitely "grass dermatitis". Although since the only things I did in the garden were erecting nets over the Grunkohl and thinning carrots, I wonder if "carrot-top dermatitis" might be more accurate. I really don't need to start having allergy problems at my age. And since one of the things I love most about gardening is being able to get my hands in the soil, having to wear gloves the whole time will be a right pain. Let's hope it proves to be just a one-off thing!

Thanks Fiona. It honestly looked even worse in real life. And worse again the next day when the rest of the red spots started blistering. It has reduced somewhat now - will give another application of the cream (some combination cortisone and antibiotic thing) and let it work its magic overnight again. I would be very glad if this was a once-off thing. The thoughts of having difficulty gardening are a bit difficult to deal with given that my ultimate plan is to live somewhere with a big garden/out in the country a bit so that I can grow a lot of my own food.

Thanks. It has gone down a good bit so that the blisters have now gone and just the marks are left. They're a bit of an angry red colour but definitely much, much better. I have to go to my nose, throat and eye doctor next week for my hayfever shot so I might ask him if it's possible to have a more detailed allergy test done than the one I had five years ago. Not sure there's a test for carrot-tops though, LOL.

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About Me

Fortysomething living in Germany since 2008. When not struggling with depression I'm trying to get rid of the last of some stupidly incurred debt and move my way towards a more independent life. One in which I know how to do most things for myself and am not reliant on paying others/shops just to cover the basics of life.
Yes, I blog anonymously. No, I don't always reply to comments - not because I don't appreciate them, just because sometimes it's too much, sometimes I just have nothing to say, sometimes just because - please don't take it personally.